A Fly In The GOP Ointment?
Barr Unpersuaded By ‘Don’t Run’ Pleas
Former Rep. Bob Barr says a number of Republicans have been trying to persuade him not to run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, but none has given him a convincing reason.
The former Republican congressman from Georgia formed an exploratory committee last month and told The Washington Times he has since been subjected to the behind-the-scenes pressure from Republicans not to run.
Mr. Barr says even people who have tried to dissuade him understand why he thinks it important to raise issues from what he calls a “genuinely conservative” perspective and to offer alternatives to the positions of the two major-party candidates.
“In the month since we formed our exploratory committee, not a single Republican who has spoken with me to try and convince me not to seek the Libertarian nomination has disagreed with my reasons for considering a run,” Mr. Barr told The Times today in an e-mail exchange before leaving London on a flight to Atlanta.
Most Republicans who asked him not to run “also said they understand why I’d run and why John McCain is not conservative and will not seriously tackle the growth in government power and spending,” he said. “Some said they would vote for me if I ran, but for the sake of the Republican Party, they would prefer I didn’t.”
Mr. Barr will speak tomorrow at the National Press Club.
But Republicans, both publicly and behind the scenes, are saying that a Barr run could hurt him financially and sink Mr. McCain’s Republican candidacy in the general election, likely against Sen. Barack Obama.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told The Times today that “Bob Barr will make it marginally easier for Barack Obama to become president. That outcome threatens every libertarian value Barr professes to champion.”
Russ Verney, an advisor to the 1992 Ross Perot presidential campaign and his 1996 campaign manager, has been working with Mr. Barr’s exploratory committee “to help put together the infrastructure for his presidential run,” Libertarian Party spokesman Andrew Davis said.
Mr. Barr, a former federal prosecutor, was a conservative Republican before he became a Libertarian in 2006.
“In 1992, Ross Perot took rather obscure issues like government spending and national debt, and made them clear for the public,” Mr. Verney said. “Sixteen years later, the public inherently knows the country is headed in the wrong direction, something has to be done, and can’t be done through Republicans and Democrats.”
If he wins nomination at the Libertarians’ May 22-26 national convention in Denver, it could financially burden his law practice and consultancy in Atlanta, while enlivening discussion at organizations with which he has been associated, including the American Conservative Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association.
To the dismay of some Republicans who consider the ACLU a champion of liberal causes, he has consulted for the civil liberties group on informational and data privacy issues on which many liberals and conservatives see eye-to-eye.
In a debate last week at Oxford University, Mr. Barr argued that in some ways the end of freedom predicted in George Orwell’s “1984″ has arrived, “not in the form of a brutal dictatorship but in the guise of modern governments using the tools of digital technology and the fear of terrorism to take away what vestiges of privacy remain to our citizens.”
He said the debate topic would be a major part of his platform if he runs. A poll paid for by his exploratory committee found 36 percent of likely voters recognized his name and 9 percent said they would vote for him over Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain.
But a Zogby poll released last month found 45 percent of likely voters favoring Mr. Obama, 42 percent for Mr. McCain, 3 percent for Mr. Barr and 1 percent for Ralph Nader, with 8 percent undecided.
GOP presidential campaign pollster John McLaughlin told The Washington Times in March that if Mr. Barr runs, the Democrats will benefit because he “takes more points from us than Nader takes from them.”
The Libertarian Party claims it “is on track to achieve ballot access in at least 48 states.”
(WaTimes)
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Barr is an idiot. If he even allows Hussein to win one state, he would do a great disservice to the libertarian and conservative movements as a whole. No matter what happens in the Presidential election, the Dems are going to increase their hold on the House and the Senate as it looks today. This election is less about McCain than it is keeping the balance of power even for the near future. The axis of Pelosi, Reid and Obama scares the hell out of me as well as it should scare any freedom loving American. The Socialism or Death mantra of Obama can not be allowed any chance at victory.
The axis of traitors (Pelosi, Reid and Obama) would certainly doom our successes in Iraq as well as the future of the Supreme Court.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:51 pmThis presidential election cycle is not the time for this. the hussein as President is dangerous.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pmI am far from thrilled by McCains domestic positions, but realistically he is the best choice at this time with respect to the war against ilsamic fundamentalists.
Barr seems to be enjoying the “maverick” label as much as Mac does. If he thought he had such great and marketable ideas, he should have stayed in the party and run himself. Libertarians doing this sort of grandstanding only turn off more potential allies.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:19 pmBarr is a weird man.
May 11th, 2008 at 6:41 pmThis is NOT the election for Bar to be running. Unless he’s doing this to allow Obama to become President, which is something he should be completely against, being a Libertarian after all. Who knows he might be a Closet Lib for all we know, and has been planning this since the candidates were announced.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:00 pmWho? If anyone, I’d expect it to be RonPaul for the Libertarian nod.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:49 pmI agree that Barr should not run, and nor should any other conservative/libertarian run for President who might siphon votes away from McCain. Personally, I like Bob Barr, and I think he says a lot of the right things, BUT I WANT TO WIN THIS NOVEMBER!
If there is only one reason why conservatives need to get out and vote Republican this year no matter what they may think of McCain and his policies, it is one: the Supreme Court.
Think about this: 1) The two oldest Supreme Court Justices, including John Paul Stevens (88 years old), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (75 years old) have at least one foot in the grave already, and are highly likely to retire/pass away during the next administration or even this year (who knows). Both of these people are probably the most liberal Justices on the court. The balance of power between the conservatives and liberals is for now in favor of the conservatives. IF John McCain is elected President, there is a much better chance of replacing these hard-core liberals with more moderate/conservative Justices. IF (a BIG If) McCain enjoys a Republican/Conservative majority in the US Senate as well, then the odds go even higher that he could appoint another Samuel Alito-type Justice to the court, which could cement the Conservative majority (barring unexpected deaths/retirements on the Right) for a generation. But even a moderate conservative replacement for either of these two liberals would make a huge difference in the opinions rendered and help move the court even further to the Right.
IF, however, the Marxist Obama is elected, and sweeps into power an even larger majority in the Senate and/or House, WOW, we are talking about a really bad combination; not just for the Supreme Court, but for foreign policy including abandonment of Iraq, appeasement of the Jihadists, and who knows what else. On domestic policy, I guarantee you that the democrat congress will pass, and Obama will sign a National Gay Rights Law, and maybe a national Civil Unions Law, or maybe even a National Gay Marriage law; if they believe that they can do it quickly and enact it into law before the backlash hits, they will do it. The Democrats have a slew of “to-do” legislation that they’ve been working on for many years, just waiting for the right moment to do them; and a Democrat President and Congress would be their time to do it.
I heard another “wounded Conservative” call into the Rusty Humphries show the other day, complaining about McCain and how awful he is, and how he will vote third-party this year (bwaahaahaa). Conservatives are their own worst enemies. They just love to whine about how awful everything is, and how the Republican candidate doesn’t “measure up” to their expectations, and “Waa Waa Waa, I’m going to vote 3rd party if he doesn’t come bowing and scraping to ME and promise to do everything that I want” (etc ad nauseum).
I want these people to just SHUT UP for a while until after the election and realize that there are larger issues at stake this year than McCain appeasing the Conservatives (including me) on every single policy point. Every time one of these crybabies calls in to vent his spleen against McCain, the commie-libs are rejoicing, and counting the days until they will take back the Presidency and an even larger majority in Congress because of the conservative crybabies. We can’t always have everything we want, and McCain will never be like us; but I would much rather have him (warts and all) than the alternative. Think about it, all you crybabies! And that includes the egotistical conservative radio-talk show hosts who just HAVE to play up the latest McCain gaffs every time he says something moderate, like Laura Ingram. Why doesn’t she focus her fire on the Liberals for once?
May 11th, 2008 at 10:18 pmI don’t necessarily agree with the last comment in the story. There are many democrats who are socially liberal and economically moderate/conservative, and who would be attracted to a libertarian candidate. So it’s possible that Nader and Barr will take more votes from Democrats than Barr alone will take from the Republicans. (Though I don’t think he deserved the nomination. Mary Ruwart all the way.) And concerning Old Sailor’s comment…you’re worried about a national gay marriage law!! You need to wake up. Conservatism is going down in flames because of bigotry like that. Just in case you haven’t noticed there are a ton of gay conservatives. Concentrate on foreign policy and taxation. Leave gay people alone.
May 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pm